The Kindle might have won the first few eReader Wars (War for Book Readers in 2009, War for Book Readers in 2010) – However, a few recent observations have been making me wonder whether B&N has a more effective long-term strategy.

A strategy it has been forced into because of Kindle’s excellent success in books.

Is the Nook Color built specifically for Children’s Books?

If you look at the retail box of the Nook Color, you notice something rather interesting about the Nook Color displayed on it –

There are 3 books displayed in the top row (on the screen of the Nook Color on the box).

Nook Color is undoubtedly better for parents and magazine readers. It represents a big shift from Kindle and Nook, which were both great for books/readers and terrible for everything/everyone else.

Nook Kids highlights B&N’s focus on parents and children

It’s not just that B&N has built Nook Color with a view to capture the children’s eReader market. It’s also released an iPad app specifically aimed at children. It’s called Nook Kids and there are already 100 books available for it – all of the read-along and picture-book variety.

If you go to B&N’s NookKids section on its website, there are books for various age groups – Up to 2 years, 3 to 5 years, 6 to 8 years, 9 to 12 years. The books include classics like Curious George and Thomas the Fire Engine. There are both picture books and read to me books.

Perhaps most interesting is a section called ‘Mom Favorites’. B&N is clearly targeting parents.

Nook Color is the #1 eReader for parents

If you’re a parent, there’s little doubt what you’ll pick – either Nook Color, or Nook Kids for iPad.

B&N might be behind Kindle in books. However, in Children’s books it’s far, far ahead. Not only does it have an iPad app tailored for kids, its reading tablet, the Nook color, caters to parents and children as one of the main target demographics.

And all those kids will grow up with fond memories of Nook Color, and with their books locked into B&N’s special format.

Getting tired of writing this – If Amazon doesn’t release a Kindle Tablet soon, it’ll be in a lot of trouble.

B&N is going after the textbook market too

B&N has Nook Kids and Nook Color to go after parents. It also has Nook Study to go after the textbook market and students.

Nook Study = B&N going after another demographic Kindle has ignored

Amazon did do university trials with the Kindle DX. However, the DX wasn’t really built for students – note-taking was horrible, there were very few features built for students, there were no page numbers, there was no color or touch.

Nook Color is much closer to the type of textbook eReader students would want – although with a screen that’s too small. However, it isn’t Nook Color that B&N is using to go after students – It’s Nook Study.

The Nook Study hard-sell

Got an email from B&N about Nook Study, and here’s what they’re advertising –

The 132 free textbooks from Kaplan.

Save up to 60% on eTextbooks.

Nook Study for PC and for Mac. Features advertised include – ability to take and share notes, search, customize highlights.

Free $5 gift card if you rent a textbook by January 21st.

Save 90% on used textbooks, and 30% on new textbooks.

Visit the site and more things hit you –

B&N is offering eTextbooks free for 7 days.

It’s offering access to 1 million free books.

It’s offering a College Kick-Start Kit.

The software itself is pretty well done. In fact, it’s downright impressive. Nook Study is a very decent option for eTextbooks – All that’s needed is an iPad app and a 10″ Nook Color and B&N will suddenly be in prime position in the War for Students.

637 B&N College Bookstores

B&N has a great channel to advertise Nook Study, sell the Nook Color, and (in the future) sell the 10″ Nook Color- its 637 college bookstores.

Which means that all it has to have is a textbook Reader and a textbook reading app that are as good as the competition – From there its retail channels will give it the win.

B&N is better placed than Amazon in Children’s Books, and might be better placed than Amazon in Textbooks

Let’s consider three separate wars that are part of the larger eReaders Wars –

The War for Readers and Books – Amazon is clearly the leader here.

The War for Parents and Children’s Books – Nook Color and Nook Kids give B&N a lead here. In fact, Amazon isn’t even trying much in this area.

The War for Students and Textbooks – Amazon tried to sell a general eReader to students. B&N is selling a reading app, and has 637 college bookstores. They’re about even. Whichever company is the first one to release a reasonably priced textbook reader, one that’s built from the ground up as a textbook reader, is likely to win.

These are 3 of the most important wars making up the greater eReader Wars. We have others like the War for Magazine Readers and the War for Newspaper Readers. However, these three are amongst the pivotal ones.

That does leave a fourth war and a fifth war – the War to replace Paper with an eReader+eWriter, the War for the Enterprise. Amazon and B&N are not fighting those wars at the moment. There might be others.

For the 5 huge wars that make up the core of the eReader Wars –

Amazon has almost fully won one (books).

B&N is set to win one (children’s books).

There’s a third (textbooks) that’s just starting off.

There’s a fourth (eReader+eWriter) which neither company seems inclined to fight.

The fifth war (Enterprise) is still far off.

If you consider the huge importance of getting children and students on to your platform – the War for Parents and the War for Students might end up being far more important than the War for Readers.

[quote]Getting tired of writing this – If Amazon doesn’t release a Kindle Tablet soon, it’ll be in a lot of trouble.[/quote]

Absolutely.

Jeff Bezos has got to step up to the plate. We’ve really not heard much from him since the big push for Kindle3 last June/July.

As Kindle users (and Amazon purchasers) we need to know that the platform we’ve bought into has a plan for the future and offers a valid upgrade path.

I’m not really seing this at the moment. Amazon has done a lot of things right in the past year, but the targets in the eReader war are constantly moving. That means that Amazon has to adapt quickly; adapt or die.

I don’t want to be part of a dead platform, RE Sony Clie. I would *like* to feel that management and planners at Amazon have a clue for the future. So far a lot of secrets, not a lot of forth-coming…